The Theatre AN EVENING WITH KAFKA by Edith Oliver.

The Talk of the Town Eyes by Lawrence Weschler. Talk story about the father of a new-born baby. He writes: "Thirty minutes after her birth, my daughter was already taking my measure. She lay in my lap, startingly alert, scanning me as I scanned her, our gazes moving about each other's bodies, limbs, faces, eyes--repeatedly returning to...

Fiction The Burglar Alarm by John Updike. Writer tells about the installation of a sophisticated burglar alarm system in his house. He describes how it operates. If the alarm is deactivated one is suddenly surrounded by an enormous voice, a remorseless honking designed to terrify an interloper. The family had to run tests now & then to...

Fiction Bumblebees by Bobbie Ann Mason. This is a story about the tension of two women, Barbara and Ruth, who have decided to live together. They have bought a farm in Western Kentucky. Barbara is just getting over a divorce, and Ruth is still recovering from the shock of having her husband and daughter killed in...

Books by Howard Moss.

Comment by Lawrence Weschler. It would almost be worth saying that much of the Tower Commission's recent portrayal of the events surrounding the Irangate affair could be read as high comedy--if the affair weren't so highly tragic & if it weren't already cliched to be saying both these things. Part of this tragicomic...

A Reporter at Large THE SPACE OF ONE BREATH by Brad Leithauser. REPORTER AT LARGE about computer chess & the Fifth World Computer Chess Championship, held in Cologne, W. Germany. Writer spoke with Anthony Scherzer, creator of BE-BE, the No. 3 seed. In the space of one breath BE-BE analyzes almost a quarter of a million different chess positions. Tells...

The Talk of the Town Homemade by Mark Singer. Talk story about Lloyd Adams of Lloyd's Carrot Cake who sells a carrot cake made from scratch. Last summer, the headquarters was relocated--from the Adamses' kitchen to its present site, a former video-game parlor opposite Van Cortlandt Park. Tells about Adams' life; he migrated from the Virgin Islands...

Reflections THE FOUR PILLARS by Richard J. Barnet. REFLECTIONS about the United States as it enters the 21st century, and the 4 pillars that have undergirded postwar US foreign policy, the 4th of which is a liberal economic order, born of the wartime conference at Bretton Woods that reflects a strong preference for free trade, freely convertible currencies...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

The Talk of the Town The Unknown Commuter by Wolcott Gibbs. Talk story about the writer's last ride aboard the Metro-North commuter train... Yesterday, I took my last ride as a Metro-North commuter. For a little over 20 years, I've travelled to & fro, 5 days a week, between Connecticut & Grand Central. Put that way it doesn't sound...

The Current Cinema NICENESS by Pauline Kael.

Poetry Wildlife by Cynthia Zarin. Head smaller than my fist, pin teeth...

Poetry Song of Salt and Pepper by Patricia Storace. Dinner twins...

Poetry Gull on Dumps by W. S. Di Piero. or broken plastic helmets lost...